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STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS
Re: Review of the Emergency Alert System
This Order paves the way for bringing our warning
system into the digital era. There is every reason to make
this a priority, from the threat of more terrorism to the
continuing ravages of nature that we have endured this
summer. So I am pleased that we are moving to expand EAS
into the new digital technologies that so many Americans are
using.
Surely it is also time to explore a more comprehensive
EAS system. People today use communications devices to
receive information in so many ways -- wireline, wireless,
radio and television broadcasting, satellite, cable, IP
technologies, and others. To make our warning systems and
information dissemination as effective as possible, we need
to figure out how to integrate these diverse technologies.
While the Further Notice is rather brief, I hope
everyone will realize the many questions that need to be
addressed as we bring the EAS into the Twenty-first century.
For example, we need to make sure that all Americans receive
emergency information, including those with disabilities and
those whose primary fluency is in a language other than
English. In the recent hurricanes, tens of thousands of
residents whose primary language is not English lacked
access to the information and warnings that others were
receiving. We need to solve this problem.
Secondly, we need to realize that although EAS is a
national system, it also affords state and local authorities
the capability to provide emergency information on
everything from weather emergencies to Amber alerts that
save abducted children. So we need to decide who exactly,
and at what level, can activate this system. And does it
make sense that employment of the system remains voluntary
in most instances?
So there is a lot to do to complete this proceeding.
And we do not have the luxury of time in these
efforts¾terrorists and hurricanes don't wait on us. These
are critical questions that are integral to our public
safety and homeland security efforts. I look forward to
working on this with my colleagues and with our new Bureau
which I hope will be up and running soon.